Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: July 20th, 2014

The Apes stayed strong in their second weekend at the box office, but murderous civilians gave them a run for their money.

In at number 1 for the second weekend in a row is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with $36 million. Audiences response to the return of Caesar & company has been positive, which in turn has helped the film keep ahead of its predecessor’s pace. So far, Dawn has grossed $138 million domestic.

Not too far behind is The Purge: Anarchy (read our review) with $28.3 million. As expected, the film did really well opening night, even beating out Apes, but it couldn’t hold onto that lead as the weekend went on.

The first Purge film ($34M) was something of an unexpected surprise, proving that any film that’s rated R and has a little excess violence can make a splash under the right circumstances. Unfortunately for The Purge: Anarchy, the appeal of a second go-around wasn’t enough to push this film to a better debut than the first. In the grand scheme of things, though, The Purge: Anarchy should do fine thanks to its low budget. Whether or not Universal will gamble on a third film is another question.

The number 3 film is Planes: Fire & Rescue (read our review) with $18 million. That’s slightly below the first film’s $22M opening, which had a very strong run in August of last year.

In fact, Disney had originally planned to release the first Planes straight to DVD, before deciding to roll the dice on a theatrical run. $90 million dollars later and that risky bet seemed like a smart move. However, as far as Fire & Rescue is concerned, Disney probably wishes they went the DVD route.

Not far behind is Sex Tape (read our review) with $15 million. It appears comedy audiences are all tapped out for the summer, as the dynamic duo of Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz could barely make a dent this weekend. Sony had hoped that reteaming Cameron Diaz with her Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan would deliver similar results – i.e. a $30M+ opening – but Sex Tape fell well short of that goal.

Rounding out the top 5 is Transformers: Age of Extinction with $10 million. Now at $227 million, Transformers 4 has cracked the top 5 for this year’s highest grossing domestic releases, and has a clear shot at the number 1 spot. On the worldwide front, however, Age of Extinction is already number 1 with $886 million.

In at number 6 is Tammy with $7.6 million. Melissa McCarthy’s latest comedy ended up doing OK business at the box office, even if it didn’t reach the same heights as Bridesmaids or Identity Thief. Tammy has grossed $71 million after three weeks.

22 Jump Street is the number 7 film with $4.7 million. With $180 million total, 22 Jump Street is easily the highest grossing comedy of the year and one of the best performing movies of the summer.

Coming in at number 8 is How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $3.8 million. Dreamworks’ animated sequel is now up to $160 million domestic and $384 million worldwide.

The number 9 film this weekend is Maleficent with $3.3 million. The Angelina Jolie-led film is now up to $228 million domestic and $697 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top 10 is Earth to Echo with $3.2 million. At only $31 million to-date, Earth to Echo couldn’t hit that counter-programming note it was looking for, and instead the film will float off into obscurity.

Outside the top 10: Boyhood continues to do very well in limited release with $1.1 million this weekend ($36,303 per screen). Zach Braff’s crowdfunded film Wish I Was Here, on the other hand, made $495,000 on twice as many screens as Boyhood.

[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates – based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, July 14th – at which time we’ll update this post with any changes.]